Crafting willow plant supports for climbing beans

Why willow suits the English plot better than anything else

There is a particular pleasure in a plant support you can cut from your own hedgerow, weave on a frosty morning, and then watch disappear under a froth of scarlet runner flowers by July. Willow has been coppiced in the damp corners of these islands for centuries — in the Somerset Levels, along East Anglian riverbanks, and in the orchards of Worcestershire and Kent, where withies were cut for baskets, hurdles and ties. The same material makes the finest climbing supports a kitchen garden can offer. It is strong, springy, entirely biodegradable, and it costs nothing but a little labour.

Willow rods hold their shape, weather beautifully to a soft grey, and allow air and light through in a way that plastic netting never will. Best of all, a well-made obelisk or hurdle can be lifted, moved, and used again for two or three seasons before it finally returns to the compost heap.

Choosing and cutting your rods

If you have a willow patch, cut between late November and early March while the sap is down. Take one-year-old rods — pencil-thick at the butt and tapering to a whippy tip — with sharp secateurs or a billhook. Anything thicker than your thumb will be stubborn to bend; anything thinner will snap under the weight of a crop. Aim for rods between 1.8 and 2.4 metres long for obelisks, and shorter lengths of 90 cm to 1.2 metres for hurdles.

For the long, straight stuff, Salix viminalis (common osier) is hard to beat. Salix triandra, almond willow, is supple and strong, while Salix purpurea gives finer rods for tying. Bundle your cuttings by length and tie them loosely. Cut on a dry day and you will avoid mould in the store.

Soaking before you weave

Freshly cut willow is wonderfully pliable and should be used within a few days. Dried rods need reviving: stand the butts in a water butt or trough for five to ten days, weighing them down with a brick. Test a rod by bending it round your wrist — if it creaks or cracks, give it another few days. Strip any leaves and side shoots as you go, and keep a few thin withies aside for tying.

Building a bean obelisk

Choose a sunny spot and mark out a circle 45–60 cm across. Fork in a little compost and tread the ground firm, because the whole structure depends on a solid base.

• Push four stout rods vertically into the ground at the compass points, about 15 cm deep.
• Insert the remaining rods evenly between them, all leaning inward to meet roughly 1.8 metres above the centre.
• Spiral a long rod upward through the uprights, passing alternately in front of and behind each one, tucking the tip inside at the top.
• Weave two or three horizontal rings at 45 cm intervals to stiffen the frame against wind.
• Gather the tops and bind them with a thin withy, twisted tight and tucked in.

Aim for eight to twelve uprights. Firm everything down with your heel and give the frame a gentle shake — if it wobbles now, it will collapse in a gale.

Low hurdles, tripods and other shapes

Not every crop wants to climb two metres. For sweet peas, dwarf climbing beans or a low edging, make a hurdle by pushing pairs of rods into the soil about 25 cm apart in a crossed X pattern, then weaving horizontal rods through the intersections. A 75 cm hurdle is ideal for keeping hens off a seedbed, and a 90 cm one will happily carry a row of sweet peas along a path.

For a single plant in a tub, three rods bound at the top make a tripod in five minutes. For a long row of runner beans, a series of obelisks set a metre apart looks far better than a wall of canes and gives you somewhere to hang nets in June.

Planting up and looking after your frame

Set your beans or sweet peas 5–8 cm inside the base of each upright, one plant per rod, and water them in well. Runner beans, climbing French beans, borlotti and tall peas will all scramble happily up willow, gripping with their own tendrils, so no tying is needed.

Do watch for sprouting. Fresh willow often roots and pushes out leaves, which can be charming but will compete with your crop — rub off any shoots early unless you fancy a living frame. To get the longest life from a woven support, lift it in late autumn, shake off the soil and store it under cover until spring. Left out in the wet, expect two or three good seasons.

There is no finer sight on a June evening than a willow obelisk draped in sweet peas, and no better way to spend a wet February afternoon than making one.